Since the last blog we have been busy! We had a few days with no-one staying and fabulous snow so made the most of it skiing the off-piste in Villaroger and Ste Foy. In fact we had such a fabulous morning skiing from the Aiguille lift down to Le Monal village that we had to go back and do the Vallon de Clou again the next day. It has been incredibly cold so the snow has stayed light and there have been very few skiers around – lots of opportunities for Jono to play with his 360 degree camera capturing all sorts of weird and wonderful effects. Our evenings have been fun filled too as our old neighbours Anna and John came for dinner to see what we had done with their apartment, and other neighbours came for drinks to see the conversion.
Our friends and regular ski pals Kris and Gary arrived on 20th January and we’ve had a fantastic week of piste skiing with them both in La Rosiere, Ste Foy and Val d’Isere. The only drawback was the cold and having to wear so many layers that we could barely move! It has maintained fantastic snow conditions though. After Kris headed home, Gary stayed on with us for another few days and we were amazed to find fabulous untracked snow more than a week after the last snowfall.
We had a superb sunny day skinning from Le Fornet to the Col des Fours and an amazing descent in virtually untracked powder. There was an incredible temperature inversion as we set off – minus 15 degrees in the valley but so warm on the col that we were in single layers. Jono filmed the day, and I’ve posted the video at the bottom of this post. The cold conditions remained for the next few days as we did a lovely tour of Col du Palet and Col de la Grassaz, stopping for a picnic at the refuge, and returned to Ste Foy to take Gary down the Vallon de Clou which still had great stashes of powder although the icy path out was not quite Gary’s favourite route.
On our last day with Gary we explored a new route from Arcs 2000 down to Nancroix. Sadly sun and wind has affected the snow so the skiing was not such fun, but the views on the descent were spectacular and it was great to find another remote but safe place to ski. We weren’t even sure how to get back to the ski area but a short walk took us to a bus stop and within minutes we were back in Peisy for a celebratory late lunch.
Since Gary headed off to join his mate Ryan we have had a few days off skiing. The plumber arrived to put in a new bathroom and we had a few trips to Albertville and Annecy to pick up lights and the last few pieces of furniture so the refurbishment is almost complete. With no new snowfall for two weeks we’ve resumed ski touring and yesterday had a lovely walk from Villaroger through the forest to Pre St Esprit before returning to cook dinner for friends staying in La Mazure – a fantastic evening!
I think of those icy paths and feel myself gripped with terror! Xx